In Defense of My Insanity - Part 2

I know, I know…its been a long time since I posted anything on my blog… I know some of you have withdrawal symptoms….sorry for all that.

I was trying to change the tone of my blog, by trying to try up something that was truly funny without being sarcastic, preachy or any of the other things that is my modus operandi.

Alas, I failed repeatedly, so I decided to write something serious. Seriously people, explaining one’s insanity is such a serious business – and I am the Emperor of this field as I am in many other fields.

Now, to the issue at hand: Let me defend my insanity in one more way.

The reason why I am insane is because that my being sane is so abhorrent to the nature, to the very existence of the Universe. So, the Universe is sending the Higgs Boson (the most primary of all particles that make up atoms.) or some other tool in it possession to travel back in time to make me insane and keep me that way – so that the Universe does not face annihilation.

You see, I have been trying to make a break for it – trying to go sane, but it is just not happening and not for trying mind you. Of course, I need not tell readers of my blog about my past trysts with attempts – all have failed miserably. I seem to have been caught at a status quo, a quagmire out of which I am not able to extract myself. It is like being at the wheels of an F1 car, but caught in peak hour traffic.

It is interesting of how I came about this explanation/defense – I was reading an article about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It felt vaguely familiar, until it hit me in the full the night after reading the article.

I have posted a link to article: The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate

You see though the article may have a negative connotation for the time-backward travelling particles, in my own case I am entitled to believe that it is in a very positive connotation and not without reason.

I believe or rather know that my ingenuity, intelligence – capable of ruling the entire Universe – is but an off-shoot of my current state of insanity. So, my becoming sane may cause the Universe to lose the most powerful entity it has ever had the honor of hosting, capable of saving it from danger and taking it to unimaginable heights.

So, the Universe is sending out the Higgs Boson or some other tool to stop me from becoming sane. In the process, it is also stopping the LHC from being successful.

Lets us all hope that the Universe finds out a way to keep me insane without affecting the LHC. The march of science should continue, even at the cost annihilation of the Universe, for otherwise humanity would stagnate and waste away.

Double Standards

I have decided to write about a subject on which I am a Subject Matter Expert. No people it’s not Insanity. Most of you don’t know that I am an expert on another subject, but believe me I am very good in the subject. It is Hypocrisy. Some of the followers of this blog will readily attest to the statement made above. I brought the subject of me being a master, so as to clarify questions of my competency on the subject about to be discussed.

With the Indian Parliamentary election results coming out and the whole noise about how a secular government has been elected, I thought it was a good time to explore, what I think are double standards by India/Indians. And one of the major double standards is our notion of secularism.

The First instance of double standards:

I am sure you all heard about the Court verdict that said Muslims in India would not be allowed to sport beards in educational institutes, government offices, the armed forces or any organization having to do with the government. Other institutions are permitted to apply this rule. More specifically I think the ruling said that a Muslim could not state religion as the reason for his sporting a beard. If a person refused to abide by the rule, that person could be expelled and it would not be taken as a case of discrimination.

Now, being a secular, liberal that I am, I completely support the ruling of the court and stand behind the court. Make no mistakes of that. I am all for the whole de-religious look.

I think one of the main reasons the court said that the Muslims would not be allowed to sport a beard is that, it would raise the differences between the different religions, especially in educational institutions. The court also said, it would not allow the “Tabilanization” of India. Also, the court said that Islam or the Koran does not ask its followers to necessarily grow a beard, thus Muslims need not grow a beard. Now, I don’t know if the Koran says you have to sport a beard if you are a Muslim or does not. That’s beside the point. Now for a little background and a look at other points before we come back to what the whole point is about.

The whole thing started because a student in a school said that he was a Muslim, hence he should be allowed to sport a beard to school. The school management disagreed with the student and the whole thing spilled on to the courts. I think there was also a case of an Officer attached with the Air Force who stated that he should be allowed to sport a beard because of his religion(Muslim again). I think the Air Force said something bout beards were not in line with the Air Forces uniform.

I completely agree. Educational institutions are not the places where ones religious identities should be displayed and support the court ruling. But, I am also shamefully reminded of how India/Indians seem to apply double standards in the issue of religion.

Now the question I wanted to ask since this issue came up is: Does the Hindu religion ask its followers to wear the thilak/bindhi on their foreheads? NO, I don’t think the Vedas or the Upanishads mentions that. Or even if it does, thats besides the point. Read on for more….

Now how many educational institutions do you think ask their students not to sport a thilak/bindhi? Or how many of them ask the students to remove them? I would say a very few.

In another case, the courts ruled in favor of the Sikh community when it said that the people belonging to the Sikh community must be allowed to sport a beard because their religion demands it. The Armed Forces allows officers of the Sikh community to sport a beard.

Now, I have nothing against the Sikh community except of course the same kind of…what can we call it…detestation that I share for all religion.
Now back to the topic.

Leave out the whole – the religion demands/does not demand that its male members sport a beard; wear a thilak /bindhi; wear turban ­– argument. It is irrelevant to what I am going to talk about.

How does the sporting of beard by a Muslim student raise the issue of religious differences in educational institutions when the sporting of beard by a Sikh student does not? How does the issue of religious differences not arise when a Hindu student wears a thilak/bindhi to the school?

The Second instance of double standards:

The second instance deals with how India/Indians seem to treat the 1984- Anti Sikh riots and the Godhra riots/ Khandamal riots differently.

Mr. X, a person who is accused of mind you NOT for instigating the Anti Sikh riots but is accused for not taking action to prevent the rioters is forced to withdraw his candidature from the parliamentary elections. This, after a large negative reaction from the public.

But then a Mr. Y, a person very much accused of instigating the Godhra riots is projected as a great leader. There is no clamor to remove his candidature except from a few lone voices that are never heard in the mainstream media anyway.

Nor are any of the people accused of being behind the Khandamal violence prevented from contesting the elections. Though many of these people lost – the point is, why was there no “public upraising” against these people contesting the elections as there was against Mr. X?

We talk about Human Rights abuse in other countries. What about India’s record? I have just one name Binayak Sen. What about the atrocities that are allegedly committed by our Armed Forces in the North-Eastern states and in Jammu & Kashmir? What about the atrocities that are allegedly committed by the police forces in the Naxal states in the name of combating naxalities?

What about the innumerable harassment that is allegedly done by the police forces on the common public, especially the people from the lower sections of the society. Please don’t tell me that we have the National Human Rights Commission to deal with such matters.

The National Human Rights Commission is for all practical purposes a joke that lacks the teeth to go after the truly powerful who commit atrocities.

And yet, we say we are concerned about the Human Rights status in other countries. We are a truly a different breed aren’t we? I think only American come near us. (And by Americans I don’t mean the average American but the policy makers.)

The Third Instance of Double Standards:

India says that the Kashmir dispute is an internal matter between Indian and Pakistan and that NO third part should interfere. Fine, good enough.

But, isn’t the Palestine-Israel conflict an internal matter between Israel and Palestine? If it is an internal matter, then why does India keep issuing statement that the two should resolve their conflict peacefully? Or if the Palestine-Israel conflict is not an internal matter, then doesn’t it mean that the Kashmir issue also no longer an internal matter.

Okay, you argue that India has the rights to air its views and that is quite different from actually interfering. Good enough, I’ll take that answer.

But, please explain why India interfered/interferes in the internal matters of Sri Lanka, namely the strife between the Sinhalese and the Tamils on that island nation. Isn’t that an internal matter of the Sri Lankan government?

Or, for that matter why does India take such active interest in the internal affairs of China, namely the Tibet issue.

Some Other instances of double standards:

People will talk about eradicating corruption with such fervor and passion that even a stone would be moved by their emotion, yet be one of the very first to offer a bribe to get their work done. People will talk ill about others who are cheating others and yet not think twice about buying duplicate DVDs and CDs of the latest movies, instead of going to theatres. People will talk about increasing the punishment for law breakers, yet go the wrong way on a One-Way road, get caught by the traffic police, ask to be forgiven and when that does not work offer a bribe to be let off.

Oh, I forgot. People will ask others to vote, but they themselves would not go and vote, cause they were “too busy” to do so.
And the list of the double standards goes on and on….I think it would not possible to list out all the instances of double standards, they are too numerous.

I think, the double standards add a unique flavor to India that you can never find it anywhere else in the world.

A time will come, when we will have to wake up to our double standards. What I am worried is not about the When this will happen, but by What will be the action taken?

Would it involve an honest look at all our double standards or will we come up with more double standards to cover the existing double standards. I fear to think what would happen, if we continue to build our society on double standards as a way of life.

So, all I am asking the readers of this post is to take time off from their busy schedules and take a look at their core beliefs, values and see whether there are any double standards in them before judging others.

The Three Stones – Part 2

I know, I know! It’s been a really really long time since I blogged. What can I say? I had a writers block. Just couldn’t make myself sit down and write a half decent post. I did write a few...what it is called...preliminaries to work up into blogs.  So, watch for many new posts in the following months.

The following post has been in my minds garage for many months now. It’s way too cluttered so, once is misplaced it  took me so long a time to retrieve it.

A few days after I wrote “The Three Stones” one my friends (a girl and No, she is not one of my sisters) called me and said my post was so timely. I asked why. She told me that one of her relatives had died recently and she had gone through some of the silly things. She pointed out three things that she had encountered that I had missed. I promised her that I would definitely post them on my blog.

 

1.      You should not laugh till the last rites are performed:

A few days before the funeral, some cousins of my friend had come to visit her. Being young people, the talk naturally turned to lighter issues and they all started laughing. Soon, one of her aunts came and giving them a stare, scolded them for laughing. Her aunt actually scolded them for being happy.

I think ours is the only country that actually scolds people for having a fun time. I mean, what’s the point here? Sure, a person is dead, but does that mean that one has to stop living? No, you get scolded for being sad also, believe I have seen it.

Well, anyways back to the “No Laughing” rule. I don’t see the connection. Are they trying to say that by laughing we are disrespecting the dead individual?

 

2.      Women should not wear bindhi till the last rites are performed:

What kind of rule is that? Why shouldn’t women keep bindhi if someone dies? What’s the connection between a person’s death and his/her relatives keeping bindhi? The most irritating part, my friend says is that: Her people chide her when she doesn’t keep bindhi on other occasions, saying it will bring bad luck and such crap. But after the death, when my friend questioned why she shouldn’t keep bindhi, they chided for asking the question….

One more instance of a "gap" is all that i am going to venture here. I am not going add anything else. I will let the above passage speak for itself. 

  

3.      That because a bad incident happened, it should be followed by a good incident:

My friend really is pissed of at this “rule”, because they have made her the victim. She is fed up at this “good should follow bad” thing that everyone seems to be harping about. Guess what the good incident is?? It is supposed to be my friends wedding. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Sounds like the Yin-Yang thing. But, if you point out that this and ask why Indians are following an essentially Chinese principle, I am sure; you’ll get lots of interesting answers. My friend says that she is quite sure they invented this thing to make her agree for marriage.

I think, I’ll go with her here. Indians have a quite a knack of inventing things for occasions and calling them tradition & culture.

Why am I so critical about Indian culture? Because, I was born and brought up in it. I am more familiar with it than with any culture and thus I can point out what I would call flaws in this culture.

All that I am saying is that culture should be able to absorb the good things from other cultures and adapt to the changing needs of the society or it is doomed to fail.